While in LA, obviously I went to Downtown Los Angeles, arguably the “most modern” district of the big city. I went there twice, actually, both at around noon. My first visit was actually on the New Year’s Eve Day where the area around Grand Park was closed from traffic as it was being prepared for some New Year’s Eve events, which was somehow quite nice as it felt like a Car Free Day (Well, in a sense it actually was), haha. Now that I think about it, probably I should have stayed in Downtown LA instead of Hollywood, especially for the New Year’s Eve (See Part V). But well…

Grand Park

Anyway, I went to the Grand Park in Downtown LA, a nice big park stretching from the Los Angeles Music Hall to the Los Angeles City Hall. There were fountains and benches in the park, which also offered free wifi (haha); and so this was indeed a nice place to be under the Los Angeles’ amazing winter weather (See Part V). Nearby the park was the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which designed reminded me a lot of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. However, the building was closed when I was there…

The Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA

Not too far away from the Grand Park was Los Angeles’ Union Station, which (I assumed) was Los Angeles’ main railroad station. This station was located next to the Metro building, which outer layout was used in Star Trek: Voyager‘s episode: Future’s End (I probably really need to write a special post about this later 😛 ). Anyway, while the station building was beautiful (and looked more like a church than a train station to me 😛 ), it was surprisingly small for a main train station! I saw some of the trains there and most of them were operated by Metrolink with diesel locomotives.

Los Angeles’ Union Station with the Metro Building in the background.

Koreatown and Little Tokyo

While in Los Angeles, I decided to go to both the Koreatown and Little Tokyo, establishments which I thought were not as “common” anywhere in the world, at least when being compared to the Chinatown, haha.

I went to the Koreatown one afternoon after my brunch with the purpose of trying out Somi Somi which Arman recommended, haha. It turned out that I was too early as I arrived there at 11:45 while Somi Somi would just open at noon. Btw, I was surprised to see a Paris Baguette there! You know, Paris Baguette was a big bakery chain in South Korea; and so seeing one in LA reminded a lot of my trip to South Korea four years prior! I decided to go in and buy two beautiful pastries for the sake of nostalgia and also to kill some time before Somi Somi’s opening time, haha 😆 .

A Paris Baguette in Los Angeles

Anyway, at noon I went upstairs to Somi-Somi; and I became their first customer today, haha. I ordered a taiyaki with Nutella filling and matcha soft cream with Oreo sprinkles. And indeed it was good!! The serving size was quite big though that it took me awhile to finish it, haha.

The delicious Somi Somi taiyaki

The Koreatown itself was not that much interesting for a tourist, in my opinion, as it felt like it was a business district, haha. I walked along the Wilshire Boulevard from Wilshire/Western to Wilshire/Vermont, which was quite a long but nice walk (thanks to the weather) and great to immediately burn off the calories from the taiyaki, haha.

Little Tokyo in Los Angeles

I also went to Little Tokyo which was nearby the Union Station. There was a Japanese Village Plaza which I found cool as the buildings there were in Japanese architecture. Btw, I actually regretted that I went there when I was still full. There were several Japanese restaurants (including the ramen chain Hakata Ikkousha) which looked great!

Santa Monica

Santa Monica

While in Los Angeles, obviously I went to the famous Santa Monica beach; especially that it was relatively easy to reach with public transport with the new Metro Expo Line, haha.

Santa Monica selfie

The most famous attraction in Santa Monica was the Santa Monica Pier, which was a really big boardwalk with many stalls on it, and actually real attractions (like a roller coaster, merry-go-around, etc). I went there on a Saturday so it probably wasn’t surprising that it was very crowded. There were several restaurants on the boardwalk. I actually wanted to try one out (the Bubba Gump), but it looked too busy today, haha.

Hot Dog on a Stick in Santa Monica

And so I went to the sidewalk, which was also very interesting. The original Hot Dog an a Stick stall was located there. I decided to try out one serving, which was delicious! Nearby the stall was the original Muscle Beach. The beach lived up to its name, though, as the reason for the name was because it was basically a public gym with many bodybuilding equipments! And not just the equipments, people actually used them even today when the outdoor temperature was quite cold! Haha…

The original Muscle Beach in Santa Monica

From the Muscle Beach, I felt quite hungry as it was late afternoon already. So I went back to the Ocean Avenue and had lunch at a taco restaurant. I decided to order a lobster taco with sangria because why not, haha 😆 . And indeed it was delicious!

Three lobster tacos and sangria

Santa Monica was more than just the beach and the pier, btw. The 3rd Street Promenade in Downtown Santa Monica was also very interesting. It was a promenade exclusively for pedestrians with many shops, cafes, and street performers. I actually stumbled upon it by accident as I was walking back from the beach to the metro station. I decided to enter the Santa Monica Place which was one end of the promenade because I had the time anyway. And I am really glad that I did.

And so in conclusion, somehow I felt like Santa Monica was similar to Scheveningen in Den Haag! 😀

Arguably the most famous district of Los Angeles, I stayed at a motel in Hollywood so I had quite some time to explore it, haha. The “main” area of Hollywood was the long Hollywood Boulevard which middle strecth (between its intersection with Highland and Vine street, approximately) was the area where the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame was located. Unsurprisingly, this was the busiest (with tourists) area as well, haha 😛 .

The Hollywood Walk of Fame was indeed really cool with a lot of stars of Hollywood names! Many I did not know but I recognized a lot of others as well! Btw, I just realized that not only people could make their way to the stars, but also some fictional characters like Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and Shrek! Haha 😆

Neil Patrick Harris’ star

Bugs Bunny’s star

There were a lot of shops, restaurants, cafes, museums, and tour operators along the boulevard. So indeed it was very lively! There were also a lot of people dressed up in (Hollywood) costumes (like Superman, Batman, Wolverine, Wonder Woman, Captain America, etc) whom you could take a photo with (but I assumed in exchange for money). Also there were some men handing out CDs, which I ignored because it looked so shady and I felt like there was a high possibility it could be a scam, haha.

People in costumes

The Hollywood Sign

The Hollywood sign was located on the Hollywood hill, which was not anywhere close to the Hollywood Boulevard at all, haha 😆 . From my research prior to the trip, I saw a suggestion to look at the sign from the Griffith Observatory. Griffith Observatory was in my list to visit anyway, so I definitely gave it a go, haha…

The Hollywood sign from Griffith Observatory

As it turned out, Griffith Observatory was also still too far away from the sign. I mean, for the photo above I needed to zoom in my camera, haha. Unfortunately, this meant it was impossible to get a good self picture with the sign from Griffith.

Unfortunately, I did not get any closer to the sign than this one. I found it rather tricky and difficult to get closer to it (See Part V); and so I guess this sign is for the next time I am around in Los Angeles then, haha…

Anyway, speaking of the Griffith Observatory …

Griffith Observatory

At the Griffith Observatory

The Griffith Observatory was a very famous site in Los Angeles, and it has been used as a setting of many movies and TV series. While perhaps most famous recently as a setting of La La Land, I was also very eager to go there because it was used as a setting in a Star Trek: Voyager‘s episode: Future’s End (I actually did a mini Future’s End Tour in Los Angeles. Perhaps I will write about it in a later post 😛 ).

I really liked this observatory that I actually went twice there! Haha 😆 . Both times I used the LADOT bus service from Sunset/Vermont Metro station, which only cost $0.50 one way and free wifi was provided!

The Griffith Observatory

Anyway, my first visit was in the evening. And indeed it was very beautiful, but also very crowded, haha 😆 . There was a balcony behind the observatory overlooking the city of Los Angeles. The view was especially magnicient especially with those evening lights!

The Griffith Observatory and Los Angeles

Of course I also entered the observatory, which was free of charge (Except if you wanted to see the program in the Samuel Oschin Planetarium)! There were really cool (space-related, obviously) exhibits inside which I thoroughly enjoyed. I could measure my weight in other extraterrestial objects (I was less than 4.5 kg in Pluto, haha 😛 ) and there were even rocks originating from meteorites! It was so cool that those rocks that were sitting in front of my eyes were not from Earth!

These rocks did not originate from Earth!

What I found amazing was that people could also use the telescope at the Observatory for FREE!! But exactly because it was for free, of course the telescope became hugely popular and so a really, really, really long line of people wanting to try it out was formed, especially that the sky was clear tonight, haha 😆 . I decided to pass.

The sundial at Griffith Observatory

My second visit was in the afternoon because, obviously, I would like to see the Observatory under the daylight too! (Beside, Star Trek: Voyager’s Future’s End scene at Griffith took place in an afternoon, haha 😆 ). Again, it was quite a busy afternoon at the observatory as well. Visiting it in the afternoon actually provided me the opportunity to see out more stuffs at display there, though, for instance the sundial just behind the Astronomers Monument.

Obviously I chose to fly to get to Los Angeles; and this flight from San Francisco was my 67th (lol) and last flight of 2017. It would be a Delta’s “Delta Shuttle” flight under their regional Delta Connection brand operated by SkyWest Airlines, haha 😆 .

A SkyWest’s Embraer ERJ175 reg N257SY in Delta Connection livery

I arrived really early at San Francisco International Airport. After checking in my luggage and clearing the security, I went to the Delta Sky Club Lounge. However, I was told that my SkyTeam Elite Plus status did not grant me complimentary access to the lounge because I wasn’t connecting to/from an international SkyTeam flight today. Damn, this was indeed true and I forgot this small fine print! Oh well…

Delta Sky Club at SFO

Anyway, as per the standard in America, I was on the list of the complimentary upgrade. However, I was only 8th on the free upgrade list to First Class (note: “First Class” is the American term for business class in a domestic flight) but was 1st on the free upgrade list to Delta Comfort+. So unsurprisingly I did not clear the First Class upgrade but I got the Delta Comfort+ one.

Impressive legroom in Delta Comfort+!

Long story short, the flight today would be operated with an Embraer ERJ175 reg N257SY. I boarded the plane and sat on my Delta Comfort+ 7A seat, which legroom was really impressive! 😮 The flight took off from runway 01L and then turned southeast towards Los Angeles. The view was beautiful because the flight was during dusk and sunset.

The complimentary Delta Shuttle snack service

The snack service was distributed about a third into the flight. I was actually impressed with the service, btw, which consisted of tasty whole grain crackers with dip, cheese, fresh fruit and vegetables; it was healthy! Apparently this was the “Delta Shuttle” level of service, which unfortunately was discontinued as per 4 January 2018 from this route.

Anyway, the approach to Los Angeles International Airport was super cool because the plane flew above the city of Los Angeles, providing amazing view of the city, including Downtown Los Angeles with all the skyscrapers! 😍 At 5:55 PM, we landed at runway 24R of LAX. Here is the landing video:

Winter in LA

Anyway, I was in LA during the winter. And it turned out that LA winter climate was like this:

A winter day in LA

😮 Yes, 28°C and sunny. What kind of winter is this??? 😅 In the Netherlands, this would have been called a rare good summer day! Lol 😆 .

On my first day in LA, this really caught me by surprise and made me felt like I dressed too much. I had to go back to the hotel to leave some of my clothes behind, because it was becoming really hot! Haha 😆 . It was nice though to be able to wear my summer outfit in California in the middle of “winter” 😛 .

One layer of clothes in the middle of “winter” in LA.

Getting Around

Anyway, just like in San Francisco, I tried to get around only by using public transportation in LA. To do this, I bought the Tap Card with a week pass which could be used at any Metro rides.

A TAP card

Unlike San Francisco, Los Angeles was actually huge! Size-wise, it was more than ten times larger than SF. And so you would probably think that public transportation in LA would be more advanced. However as it turned out, it was actually the opposite and was seriously lacking!

There were a few subway/light rail lines but I felt like the frequency was way too low. For instance, the frequency of the red line train was often only once in about every fifteen minutes! To be fair each train set was long hence the high capacity; but considering this was an urban public transport, I would still go for frequency than capacity.

The low subway frequency in LA

To me this was rather annoying that I felt like I spent a lot of time just transporting from one place to another. From this trip point of view, this wasn’t much of a problem because I had so many days in LA anyway. But if I had had much less time, or if I lived in LA, there was practically almost no incentive for me to take the public transport.

This was also one of the (many) things discussed during lunch with Arman and Christa, where we agreed that owning a car was a must for those who lived in LA, haha.

Bloggers Gathering

A bloggers meetup in Hollywood!!

Speaking of meeting up with Arman and Christa, we decided to meet at a Thai restaurant in Hollywood (because I stayed in Hollywood) on New Year’s day for lunch. Arman came with Esther, Andrew, and Emma; and Christa came with R. We met at around noon and talked and talked for hours, and suddenly it was almost 3 PM already! Time flew by really fast that Emma felt left out. We are so sorry Emma!! 😣 Btw, Andrew and Emma spoke great Indonesian, btw! 😀 Anyway, indeed it was so much fun!! 🙂

New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve in Hollywood

Speaking of Hollywood, one would think that the New Year’s Eve would be awesome and super fun there. This was one of the reasons why I was staying there, haha. But it turned out to be wrong! There were only few fireworks and even at the new year’s time (12 o’clock midnight), people only honked their cars but that was all about it! Haha 😆 . Suffice to say I felt rather “deflated”, haha…

The Food

Speaking of the food, just like in San Francisco, LA had very wide varieties of food to choose from. As it turned out, Hollywood was located quite close to the Thai Town so there were a lot of Thai restaurants there, haha. I tried a few of those and the best one was indeed the Palms Thai restaurant where we had the bloggers gathering (The gathering was so much fun that I forgot to take pictures of the food, haha).

In-N-Out’s Double-Double burger

Anyway, one meal that definitely impressed me was In-N-Out, that was actually a burger joint (There were actually a few In-N-Outs in San Francisco too but I didn’t have the chance to go there while in SF). I got a few independent recommendations to really try it and so I did in LA. I tried their Double-Double burger and indeed it was great. Not only the taste, but also the value of money! Haha 😆 . It was so famous that it was very busy the time I was there, which arguably was not the peak hours. So I agree that In-N-Out is a much whenever you are in California, hahaha 😆 .

TO BE CONTINUED…

DL4837 to LAX

Terminal 1 of San Francisco International Airport

The upgrade lists

The Delta Comfort+ seats

On board SkyWest’s Embraer ERJ175 reg N257SY for Delta Connection

Delta Comfort+

San Francisco International Airport

Welcome to LA

A burger in LA

Los Angeles at night

The crowd at In-N-Out not during peak hours

I was waiting for like 45 minutes her for a service which frequency was supposedly every 25 minutes.

Last week was, indeed, a unique week for me because I had … two separate trips within the week! Lol 😆 .

I already mentioned that I was in Copenhagen in Denmark on Tuesday for the PhD defense of a good friend of mine. And of course this trip had to last until Wednesday because a reception and a party followed the defense which I definitely would not miss, haha.

Copenhagen, Denmark

And later on in the week, as my Instagram (@azilko) followers have known, I went on a weekend trip! And this time, I went to … Bologna in Italy! This weekend trip was one of the longer one where I departed on Friday, instead of Saturday, and went back to Amsterdam on Sunday. I chose to depart on Friday mainly because I found an interesting routing from Amsterdam to Bologna via Lyon on that day, haha 😛 .

A tortellini bolognese with ragu in Bologna!

It was a coincidence that these two trips were so close to each other. I already planned my Bologna trip since months ago while I planned my Copenhagen trip just about three weeks ago, haha. I still got myself a return Air France/KLM ticket to Copenhagen (with a routing via Paris on the way back 😛 ), even though it was not the cheapest flight ticket per se. However, the cheapest return flight (with Norwegian) would require me to stay an extra night in Copenhagen plus an extra half a day off of my holiday allowance. So I figured that all things considered, my trip would cost “less” in total if I bought the seemingly more expensive Air France/KLM ticket. And so as a bonus, I also got quite some miles from this ticket, haha. Anyway, so in the end here is the route map of the flights I did last week.

My routing last week. Created with gcmap.com

Work-wise, indeed it was an interesting week for me last week; because I only worked on Monday and Thursday! You see, I had a weekend, then a day of work (Monday), then two days of vacation, then a day of work (Thursday), then a “long” weekend! It indeed felt a little bit like I was taking two breaks from vacation for work! Lol 😆

To sum it up, it was indeed such a fun week. Here are some photos from the two trips as teasers:

Before the trip when I thought of San Francisco, I thought of a big city. Well, it turned that especially for American standard, this was wrong! Even Bandung was actually larger than San Francisco!

While this might sound positive in the sense that theoretically most part of the city was within walking distance, actually there was a third dimension to be considered here: elevation. San Francisco was very hilly, even there were hills in the city center (See, for instance, the Lombard Street in Part II). So to get around, utilizing our own feet was not the best way, IMO, haha.

Hilly San Francisco

In this trip, I tried to rely as much as possible to public transport (even later in LA, in Part V). And the San Francisco public transport was quite sufficient for that.

The Public Transport and Clipper Card

The public transport in San Francisco (and the Bay Area) was run by several different companies. Luckily, there was the “Clipper Card” which could be used in all of them, including the BART train which provided train service to San Francisco International Airport. It worked by charging the card with some credit and tapping it before every ride.

A BART train at San Francisco International Airport

I bought my card at San Francisco International Airport when I had just arrived from Amsterdam. You could ask the Information Desk where you could buy one. There was a $3 non-refundable cost for each card but to me it was well worth it even when only considering the practicality! Also, with the card I got a $0.25 discount from each single ride with a MUNI vehicle (the normal price was $2.75) which was valid for 90 minutes. So I liked it indeed.

The Clipper Card

Anyway, speaking of public transport, the most popular (and touristy) one was definitely the cable cars which crossed the hills of San Francisco. They were packed with tourists in most of my time there! I mean, the lines just to ride one were just so long! The cable cars were operated by MUNI but had a special fare. Instead of $2.75, a single ride fare was $7! Yep, they were that popular! The price was literally 2.5 times more expensive than other modes of transport yet they were that busy! Haha. I didn’t ride a single one when I was there, btw; even when my hotel was close to one of the stops. You know, I just couldn’t stand the crazy line! 😛

A San Francisco’s cable car

Instead, my favorite mode of transport there was the streetcars! They had regular fare ($2.75, which I only needed to pay $2.50 with the Clipper Card), not as busy as the cable cars, and they all had classic look and cute colors! Hahaha 😆 .

A San Francisco’s street car

A San Francisco’s street car

My favorite line was the historical line F which went around the hills and connected Fisherman’s Wharf and Embarcadero with the Market Street in the city center.

Beside those classic modes of transport, regular buses and subways also ran throughout the city.

Bus 76X to Golden Gate Bridge

The Living Cost

I had a few trips to some supermarkets while I was in San Francisco. And there, somehow I felt like the price of everything was generally quite expensive. Even I did not remember New York to be this expensive when I went there two years ago!

But you know, maybe I did not remember it correctly so I kept it to myself. This was until Noni (Nyonyasepatu) asked me if I also felt that San Francisco was expensive! Lol 😆 . We agreed that San Francisco was, indeed, an expensive city!

San Francisco

During the course of the trip, I also heard from a few locals that indeed the living cost had surged a lot. You see, the booming economy (driven by the Silicon Valley nearby) and the relatively small size of the city resulted in demand that was always on top of supply, thus pushing the living cost up.

The Food

Speaking of food, I felt like San Francisco (and California in general) had wide varieties of food from all over the world, and especially East Asia! Having said that, there was one particular dish which I would like to try out: the clam chowder. I immediately had the chance to try one out for brunch when I was in Pier 39.

Clam chowder

And … the soup was great!! However, the bread tasted really strange to me, hahaha 😆

I also noticed that, somehow, I had quite some Japanese food in San Francisco. I had a yakitori (this was actually my first meal there, lol 😆 ), a pork ramen, and a bento! They were good, even though I felt like the original one in Asia was still better. But I was not complaining at all.

A salad and Cheetos from the supermarket for dinner

Speaking of eating out, most restaurants were closed on Christmas day in San Francisco. However, a lot of people would still like to eat out. And this resulted in unbelievably long queues at those few restaurants that were open! That evening, I had to resort to supermarket stuffs because I did not want to queue for a long time just for a Burger King, for instance, haha. Even then, I was not the only one with this idea because the supermarkets were also busier than the other days!

Following a suggestion I got before the trip, I booked two tours during my stay in San Francisco. The first one was a tour to Alcatraz, a small island where the infamous Alcatraz federal prison was located in the past; and the second one was a one-day tour to the Yosemite National Park in Sierra Nevada.

And here are the stories from these two tours.

The Alcatraz Tour

I was very lucky to snatch a last minute ticket online for the Alcatraz Tour two days before I left for the trip. I also checked the tour the day before and it was indicated that the tour had been fully booked until early January! Crazy, lol 😆 . So I immediately grabbed the ticket the day after when suddenly there was an availability!

I visited Pier 39 the morning of the tour (see Part II) and from there I walked to Pier 33 where the tour would depart from. There was a ticket booth there, but they had this sign:

The tour was fully booked until January 4th (which was two weeks later).

Lol 😆 . Anyway, I took the 12:30 PM departure, and the ferry boat left on time. It was just a mere 10 minutes cross to Alcatraz Island.

From the docking area, we just needed to follow the sign to the prison building at the top of the island. We entered the prison building via what used to be the shower area of the inmates, and this room was now also where we would get the audioguide. From there, we went up the stairs where the tour would start immediately in the cell area of the prison.

The famous sign at the dock

Since about a month before the trip, as I finished remarathoning Star Trek: Voyager, I decided to watchOrange Is The New Black on Netflix which story setting was a prison. I felt like watching the series helped me understand Alcatraz better. At least I became more “familiar” with a few jargony American English terms thrown in during the tour, which I would not have understood had I not watched the series, haha.

The cells of Alcatraz

The cells looked scary and depressing (like what I would expect from a prison cell). The SHU (Special Housing Units) cells, which basically was a prison within a prison, were located in the next room. If the “regular” cells looked scary and depressing already, the SHUs were exponentially more than that.

The SHU of Alcatraz

The tour covered basically all aspects of Alcatraz, including the office area and the visitation area. I also learned that some officers with their families actually lived in Alcatraz back then! Anyway, what I found interesting was that actually from Alcatraz, you would get a beautiful view towards Downtown San Francisco. But thinking about it, perhaps this was the ultimate “punishment” for the prisoners; where the city was just right before their eyes yet unreachable.

Downtown San Francisco from Alcatraz

The audioguide also told a few stories about a riot and a few escape attempts. The tour ended at the dining and kitchen area which, surprisingly, were actually the most “dangerous” part of the prison. The reasoning made sense though, inmates sitting together in a room with cutleries in their hand. Anyway, from there, we were asked to go back down to return the audioguide and to the gift store.

The kitchen of Alcatraz

Overall it was a nice tour at Alcatraz and I recommend this tour. I spent good two hours there before catching a ferry boat back to Pier 33.

The Yosemite One-Day Tour

My tour to Yosemite would depart at 7 AM from San Francisco. So I woke up early (not a problem thanks to the jetlag anyway, lol 😆 ), had two cup noodles as breakfast, and went to the departure spot nearby my hotel.

This tour took place a day after my visit to the Golden Gate Bridge, where I crossed the bridge while it was very windy. Unfortunately, though, this turned out to affect my condition, where I did not feel completely fit today. Well, I wasn’t sick per se, but it was obvious that maybe I was just about 60-70% fit. I knew this wasn’t ideal but I also didn’t want to bail the tour, so I forced myself to go and try to enjoy it as much as I could.

The bus left San Francisco on time and turned out to have a wifi and toilet, haha. Anyway, here is the approximate route map to Yosemite today:

The route map to Yosemite today

Yep, it was around 375 km one-way which we would travel in around five hours (including a 30 minutes stop for food/snack in Livingston (the circle in the map above)). This meant we would spend literally ten hours just in the road today, haha. The view along the way was mostly quite “plain” because we were driving in a higway anyway. However, it started to get better once we left the highway and were closing in to Sierra Nevada (but the wifi signal also got problematic with weak reception there, haha).

Livingston, California

Anyway, we arrived at the entrance of the Yosemite National Park just before noon. We had a quick stop there to take pictures with the sign, a “proof” that we were in Yosemite, haha. From there, we officially entered the park where we had to pass a check point and bought the entrance tickets (which were obviously included in the tour). We made a few stops along the way, at a waterfall, the Tunnel View, and the bottom of the famous El Capitan rock.

Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View

The view was indeed very beautiful! Though it was unfortunate that the weather today wasn’t the best as it was very cloudy. The fact that I wasn’t at my best physically also played a part as well, haha. Anyway, the Tunnel View provided a really amazing overview of the Yosemite Valley; and El Capitan was an impressive vertical 900 meter rock formation.

The El Capitan rock

From there, the bus parked near the Yosemite Valley Lodge. We were given about 3.5 hours to explore the park on our own. First, of course I went to the restaurant in the lodge for some lunch! Haha 😛 . The food was okay even though it was not that special.

From lunch, I walked towards the Yosemite Falls that was nearby. On the way there, I saw trees with red trunks, which I suspected was the famous redwoods! It was my first time seeing tree trunks in this color and it was beautiful!

Redwoods

Anyway, the Yosemite Falls was very tall at 739 meter in height. The Falls actually consisted of three part: the Upper Fall, the Middle Cascades, and the Lower Fall. There was a viewing point near the bottom of the Lower Fall and unsurprisingly it was busy, haha. I stayed there for a good few minutes and took some photos.

A selfie with the Lower Yosemite Fall.

I still had about 1.5 hour to explore. I was thinking to take the free shuttle bus to the other part of the park. However, I also did not feel that well. Considering that it was still day four of my two weeks vacation in California, I thought it would be best if I took it slow. And so, instead of exploring the park, I decided to go to the lodge’s lounge! Hahaha 😆

Lounging in Yosemite

I left the lounge on time to go to the designated place where our bus would leave. A few other people were late for about 15 minutes, though. And then, we started the five hour trip back to San Francisco. Again, we made a stop at Livingston for dinner, which I chose to have the Popeye’s fried chicken. Upon approaching San Francisco, we made a stop at Treasure Island to get the beautiful night view of the city.

Downtown San Francisco from Treasure Island

This one day tour was definitely nice to get a taste of Yosemite; though, perhaps spending a night there wouldn’t be a bad idea given the distance. In my opinion, it would be even much better if the weather was nice and I was in a better condition physically, hahaha…

There were a lot of interesting places in San Francisco, and they were all easily accessible with public transport (which was one of the reasons why I liked San Francisco, but more on this later in the Part IV post 😉 ). Anyway, here are those places which I visited.

The Golden Gate Bridge

As this was my first time to San Francisco, obviously the first destination that I put in my list was the Golden Gate Bridge! Haha 😛 . Though, I actually went there on my second day because I already booked a tour to Alcatraz for my first day (more on this in the Part III post).

Anyway, I took the special hourly 76X bus service (it only ran on weekends and public holidays) to the southside of the bridge where there was a small park overlooking the bridge. I was quite early this morning so the famous tourist spot was not that busy yet, haha. Of course I took some selfies (with the help of my gorillapod) with the super famous bridge; and realized that it was quite windy today.

The mandatory selfie with the Golden Gate Bridge.

After enjoying the view from the southside, I impulsively decided that I would like to cross the bridge, on foot! Lol 😆 . Here is the thing, while it was just a “bridge”, the length of the Golden Gate was around 2.6 km from end to end. And of course I would not just cross the bridge and come back immediately. I would like to go to the Vista Point at the northside as well. This meant I would need to walk for more than 5.2 km to get back to where I came from. But hey, I was on vacation so why not? Lol 😆

Crossing the bridge was awesome and from on it we could see Downtown San Francisco and the Alcatraz Island too. It was even windier there on the bridge than it was at the southside park, btw. It took me about half an hour to get to Vista Point at the northside.

The mandatory selfie while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on foot.

The Vista Point was also quite busy at the time, and I noticed that most people either drove there or took the Hop On Hop Off bus (like, obviously, lol 😆 ). However, if you would like to take a self picture with the bridge in December, the southside was definitely the better side. Because this time around the sun was in the southern hemisphere , you would get terrible backlight from the Vista Point.

The Golden Gate Bridge from Vista Point

After about 20 minutes at the Vista Point, I went back and crossed the bridge for the second time. This time, though, I realized that some people jogged on the bridge. Quite possibly they lived in San Francisco, and indeed I thought it was a great idea for some exercise! 😀 Because you know what, I made around 10,000 steps just from crossing the bridge and back! Anyway after arriving at the southside, which had become more crowded this time around but still manageable, I decided to take bus 28 and went back to Downtown San Francisco.

Pier 39 and the Fisherman’s Wharf

Pier 39 in San Francisco

Another popular district of San Francisco was the Embarcadero, where many marine-related establishments were located. It consisted of many different piers designated with odd numbers, and the most touristic one was Pier 39. Indeed Pier 39 was beautiful with many different cute shops and restaurants in it; but the most interesting attraction in this pier was definitely this:

Yep, those were sea lions; and there were many of them just lounging on those decks in Pier 39!!

Close to Pier 39 was the Fisherman’s Wharf, which formerly home to many fishermen in San Francisco (hence the name). There were many shops and restaurants there, yet still felt organized and not overly crowded.

The Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco

Union Square

I stayed at a hotel nearby the Union Square in Downtown San Francisco, which location I found very strategic! There were many shops, restaurants, supermarkets, and even a mall (The Westfield) nearby! The Union Square itself was also very beautiful with a big Christmas Tree and was surrounded by several different stores.

Union Square

The Alamo Square and the Lombard Street

The Alamo Square was a park in San Francisco and was quite famous because The Painted Ladies, houses in Victorian architecture with beautiful colors, were located next to the square. Btw, there was free wifi at the park too 😛 .

The Seven Painted Ladies in San Francisco

Another famous attraction in San Francisco was the Lombard Street, a steep narrow one-way street with eight hairpin turns; and is claimed to be the “crookedest street in the world”. This spot obviously attracted many people, which half came on foot (like me) and the other half came with cars to experience the street first hand! And indeed, if I were to drive a car in San Francisco, I would like to try out this street myself as well! Haha 😛